Editor Note: At least a couple of times each week, someone sends an unsolicited story trying to convince us to publish it. More often than not, the material simply doesn’t fit. It’s either too long, too sales focused or – as happened today in fact – completely inappropriate ( they wanted us to run a story about dental hygiene).
When I first heard from today’s author – Travis Bedwell – he didn’t try to suggest I publish anything actually. He merely wanted to know how I got started as a writer. Clever guy this Travis.
My break as a writer, in fact, came from a guy many of you might never have heard of, former Flying Magazine senior editor Gordon Baxter.
During the course of a couple of e-mails with Travis, I realized he was a passionate aviator (training for his CFI at Southern Illinois University) with some solid reasoning behind his current flying options. But I also noticed he possessed a talent for putting words together. In the end I asked him to offer Jetwhine readers a few insights into the world of learning to fly from the right seat.
Without further ado, may I present Travis Bedwell, a young man I hope we’ll hear more from over the next few years.
Rob Mark, publisher
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“Left rudder, left rudder” says my flight instructor as I manage to touch our Cutlass down on the right main wheel first (Note to self: next time touch down on both mains at the same time for a smooth landing).
It doesn’t seem that flying in the right seat should be any different than the left, despite the fact that those instruments that I’ve been staring at for my entire flying career are gone. However, acquiring the skills and traits required to be a certificated flight instructor is the greatest challenge that I have encountered in my flight training.
I chose to pursue CFI training because I want to share my love of flying with others. Some of my colleagues are bypassing the flight instructor route and obtaining more multi engine time hoping to go to a regional carrier. I love flying twins, but that time and place will come later for me. I want to instruct not only to share my passion of aviation, but to become a better pilot as well.
Like any other flight rating, I have ground and flight lessons. The majority of my ground time consists of me teaching for an hour and a half with a thirty-minute debrief; it’s a brutal 90 minutes. Trying to explain topics, such as aerodynamics and weather theory, give a new meaning to migraines. To add to the challenge, my instructor makes me explain the same topic using a variety of methods and visual aids before moving on. Although I shoot him a dirty look, I know that his reasoning is solid. [Read more…] about A Budding CFI, a New Writer